So since the start of January, I have been on a roll with finishing off old sewing projects and bringing festering ideas into fruition. In the last four days I have completed the following and I attribute my immense drive and perserverence to the extreme cold we are having here in NYC. (8 degrees the other day!)

I got this Vogue vintage 1950’s pattern about a year ago and I was excited to use it with some blue floral cotton. The blue made me think of Grace Kelly and a delicate tea party. Finding the pattern pieces were very oddly shaped and I might not have enough, I improvised by using a lovely lipstick red cotton I salvaged from an old dress I never wore. The dress’ skirt was full and cut on the bias, so I had a lot of fabric to work with. I actually like the combination of the two and the red brings a more modern look to the shape, in my eyes. I am five hours into the project and it’s looking nice. I have a long way to go, as there are eight gussets in all, a full lining, horsehair braid to put into the hem, a zipper and hemming!

Another garment I made was this simple silk blouse from some flocked cheetah print fabric a client of mine had me make a custom dress from in like… 2008. I have been sitting on this small piece for about seven years so it was nice to make a little shirt with a built in scarf. The pattern is original and I sewed a scarf piece into the shoulder seam and then it wraps around the neckline. French seams throughout and simple hemming. I would like to do one or two more in a different fabric ;o)

So I started this draped jacket from some awesome pink wool Kollabora generously donated to me last year and then I just stopped. The pattern is a plus size Burdastyle pattern that took me like six hours to grade down because of all of the angles of it and it was exhausting and I guess I therefore gave up. I bought that purple woven fabric at Paron six months ago with the intention of using it on the lapel of this jacket, yet the whole project sat in storage for months and months until this week. I hand-sewed the binding on the cuffs and tacked the collar facing throughout. I am pretty happy with how happy-looking the jacket is. It’s so damn bright, but who cares, it’s fun. I love pink.

I also used this awesome Western shirt I got in Texas last year to make a much less masculine and heavy blouse with some shaping, waist cinching and a Peter Pan collar. I completely took apart the men’s shirt and used the flat fabric to cut out a vintage 1960’s pattern from it. I had just the right amount of fabric, and was even able to re-use the buttons and cut a smaller sleeve from the existing sleeves! The new shirt features a bowtie front, buttons down the back, and short sleeves. I loved the print of the old shirt, but that coupled with the back cape yoke and front cape and large bulbous sleeves was a bit…much. Hooray for re-imagining clothing!

I also made this pillow from this awesome Indian shirt I have had for about six years and never wear because it’s skin-tight. I love the embroidery on it and the intense pink, but it was too darn small. I love Eastern textiles and have a lot of them in my home, so this made sense. I only used the sleeves to make the pillow, added some vintage purple pom pom trim and that was it.

Now,I have to finish the 50’s dress and I want to alter an amazing French suit I picked up at a thrift shop recently. It’s a wild suit. I’m excited to share what else I make in the next few weeks! Be back soon!

So Red Pearl, you know the indelible indie feature film I acted in and did the costume design for this past summer, well the rough cut has been sent into the SXSW & Tribeca Film Festivals for review! Fingers crossed it makes it into either or both of these awesome festivals! EEEEEK!

<—Here is the postcard image the directors sent out to the Kickstarter funders.

The film is currently picture locked and awaiting it’s finishing touches, such as the sound lock, amazing custom score from my friend and fellow Syracuse University graduate, Steve Woodzell, whose work is really exciting and so having him onboard is an extraordinary thing ;D The film should be finished by summer 2015 at the latest. In the meantime, please check out the website and here are some stillz.

OK, it’s freak out time. Just six days left to raise $1350 of our goal for our film on Kickstarter. People have already so generously donated $4650 and if we don’t meet the rest, we get none of it! PLEASE HELP! It’s going to be an awesome movie and $25 gets you a credit in the film. We have been working so hard. Check out the latest costume I finished just yesterday.https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1297000993/red-pearl

So, some major news in my several month lull here on my good ole blog. I was cast as the lead in an independent feature film shooting this summer out West. Not only am I acting in this film, as a fashion designer starting her life post-college, I am also the costume designer (think Tim Burton-cum-Wes Anderson-cum- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind! This is the gelling of all of my work in fashion and acting over the last ten years and I couldn’t be more ecstatic and ready to put in my A-game. Shooting starts in one month and we are seeking KICKSTARTER donations to get this underway. The film, entitled, Red Pearl, was written by two fantastic award-winning filmmakers & screenwriters over the last two years. You can read more about the project below and if you feel so inclined, please donate ! There are fifteen days left of our Kickstarter campaign.

R E D P E A R L

A young fashion designer starting her first job in a new city finds herself uninspired and involved with unwanted drama.

Red Pearl is a feature film written and directed by award-winning filmmakers starring Desira Pesta.

Production Update!! We’ve got Mondo! Project Runway’s Denver native, Mondo Guerra,will be making a cameo appearance in our film. Thanks to Mondo and Remy for your time and support!

About the Movie

Red Pearl tells the story of an aspiring young fashion designer starting her first job in a new city. Struggling to find her place in the world, she becomes involved with unwanted drama and ends up lonely and uninspired. The dramatic comedy has a little bit of everything: fashion, art, romance, jealousy, quirky roadside attractions, and even a bar fight!

Sketch by Desira Pesta

Let’s set the scene….

Arriving in Denver is young Scarlet, fresh out of fashion school in fabulous Columbus, aspiring to be a successful couture designer. Her confidence is high: she is wide-eyed and prepared for independence in the post-college stage of life. Ready to make her big dreams come true, she takes her first job designing costumes for the world-renowned Central City Opera, a mountain-town establishment nestled between old-west culture and history, and modern-day slot machines.

Almost immediately Scarlet finds herself immersed in difficult situations where she must decide how to handle the cold, demanding scene shop boss and her snickering, judgmental co-workers. She must choose whether or not to reciprocate a mutual attraction with her neighbor: the gorgeous- but married- Carlos.

While navigating the drama of work and sex, she seeks comfort in her aspiring musician friend Julian and her cynical-but-lovable landlord Dorian. Just when Scarlet is feeling better about the possibilities of her future in this new place, she finds herself shamed by those around her. Spiraling into despair, Scarlet must decide how she will confront disappointment, rejection, and morality-questioning debacles as she seeks to reconfigure her sense of identity.

The Filmmakers

Jess McGaugh and Stacy Barton have been friends since 2005 when they became roommates during grad school at Syracuse University in New York. We began collaborating immediately on projects while sharing an editing studio in our house off Westcott Street. The snowy winters allowed for an immersion into filmmaking, and it was only a matter of time before we would venture into the world of narrative features. Working together training tomorrow’s filmmakers, we began writing Red Pearl, deeply inspired by the city and mountains surrounding us from our 8th floor, shared downtown office at CU Denver.

Pre-production started earlier this year and we are shooting the film this June 2014. Distribution and exhibition plans for the project include film festivals, DVD sales, Internet streaming, and VOD markets.

Desira Pesta is an East Coast-bred visual and performance artist & writer who was raised by two bikers in the woods of Scranton, Pennsylvania. She started acting and writing as a child, finding she preferred perfecting Southern characters, dressing as a male, or taking on the role of an orphan witch in home videos & recordings she created in lieu of “normal” teenager activities.

Desira received a BFA in Fine Art from Syracuse University with a minor in Interior Architecture. After college, Desira moved to NYC and as a self-taught seamstress, she started working as an independent fashion designer, finally producing a small ready-to-wear line she sold throughout the US, Australia, the U.K. & Japan from 2005 to present. Ever a performer, the screen beckoned her back and with tremendous good luck and hard work, she was invited to join The Screen Actors Guild in 2009.

As a fashion & costume designer, Desira’s clothing company, started in 2004, has become a favorite amongst indie lovers and Desira was one of the final 25 possible contestants for Project Runway Seasons 7 & 8. With a natural knack for all things creative, she has lived an alternative lifestyle, supporting herself solely through creative hands-on endeavors & projects.

Desira Pesta

Why are we making this movie?

As adventurers ourselves, we closely identify with our lead character Scarlet who is exploring the difficulties of following big dreams. Both of us, as filmmakers and educators, have picked up and moved to brand new cities multiple times throughout our lives in search of our individual paths to success. The overwhelming process of immersing oneself into an unfamiliar environment with no friends or family to fall back on is a life-forming experience like no other. We want to visualize the struggle of a young woman on her quest of learning who she is and what she is capable of in a difficult environment.

Since the fates have brought us, the filmmakers, together once again professionally in such a comforting and positive way, we decided to collaborate to tell a story that takes some of our own lived dramas and puts them on the big screen (with other dramatic, fictional embellishments of course! After all, this is the movies!)

As now residents of Denver, Colorado, we love our city. We also love art and fashion. We are proud of the Denver fashion stars and potential for growth that is coming into its own here, and we feel the up-and-coming fashion scene in Denver is notable and worthy of featuring and promoting in our movie. In Red Pearl, we are collaborating with some up-and-coming local designers as well as established, local fashion publications and entities.

What will the money be used for?

Feature filmmaking is very expensive. We are planning to work with a very low budget while maintaining high production value. Will $6K cover our entire budget? Heck to the NO. We’d love to raise more, much more, but $6K will get us moving forward as we continue to fundraise and get closer to production. Here is how we will be spending the money more specifically:

$1,500 SAG/AFTRA Actor Fee

$500 Travel funds for Lead SAG/AFTRA Actor

$1,200 Additional primary cast Actor Fees

$800 Production Insurance

$1,000 Production Audio Recordist/Engineer

$1,000 Lens’, Dolly Track, Car Mount Rental

Kickstarter Total $6,000

Additional costs included in our production budget but not within our immediate Kickstarter goal:

$2,000 Director of Photography Fee

$500 Hair and Make-Up Stylist

$300 Desira Pesta mini-collection materials & labor

$800 Overnight shoot in Lucas, KS

$600 Props, set dressing, make-up & hair supplies

$200 Grip truck gas & parking

$500 Fashion Show scaffolding, chairs, DJ, etc.

$2,000 Hard drives for media storage

$150 Expendables

Additional Production Budget Total $7,050

And this doesn’t even including our post-production budgetary needs!

Other Ways to Support the Film

If you are unable or unwilling to give cash, and want to help see the film go further, there is plenty you can do to support Red Pearl. We need to feed the crew for over 2 weeks, so in-kind donations of food would be helpful, either in the form of paying for or providing local catering, or through gift cards from Costco, Target, Wal-Mart, etc. We are also in search of donations including sewing busts, fabric, and event chairs and risers, just to name a few. Additionally, we are in need of the temporary use of 2 custom cars: an old, beaten-up pick-up truck, and a work-in-progress, classic, detailed convertible.

Another way you can support Red Pearl is to host a screening of the film in your community. We want the world to see our movie!

Thank you so much for your interest and support in our project, Red Pearl. You are giving us an opportunity to follow our dreams and to advance us to the next important stage in our filmmaking careers!

Love,

Jess and Stacy

Risks and challenges

Risks and challenges associated with this film are standard for every production since the beginning of cinema. Some of these production risks include bad weather, equipment malfunction, actor absence, computer software glitches, and location audio problems.

For those of you who have film experience, you already know that things happen that are out of your control. However, being prepared with a backup plan will help in operating a smooth film set while crafting excellent images, sound and performances.

A few months ago, I was commissioned to create an original design for a new webseries. I designed, created a pattern for, and constructed a custom steampunk-inspired lab coat for the titular character in the new YouTube series, Malcontent’s Lab for actress Alana Jackler this past summer. Designs were bounced around and around, playing with elements of the late 1800’s, as well as Futurist aspects. Over the course of about 5 weeks I designed, constructed, and finished this giant job and you can see the process below… Malcontent’s Lab is one of the many shows on the YouTube channel, ScifiRiot.

Alana Jackler in Malcontents Lab

The coat took approximately 22 hours and the process included preliminary sketches, merging sketches and then a final sketch was approved.

My sketches for the coat

So the sketch on the bottom left was the one picked, yet I would include a purple tulle underskirt to soften the hardness of the coat and also to convey a little fantasy in the character.

2. The next step was drafting the pattern! I did a simple bodice design with a full circle skirt and then chopped one side of the front bodice and enlongated the other. This would give that asymmetrical center front and create the palette for those leather straps and buckles you can see in the drawing.

3. Construction/sewing!

The pinned bodice pieces

The bodice with the open skirt pinned

THE FINISHED PRODUCT!

The finished product :o)

A LAST MINUTE ADDITION: a little M emblem, she beckons the idea of a superhero for herself

About six weeks ago my boyfriend and I took up residence in a 122 year old Downtown Jersey City apartment, relocating from Brooklyn after ten years for him and seven for me. It was a big and well-needed shift and we love it. Despite the fact that our building has survived several wars, yes, It’s a trendy Pre-pre-pre-pre War… (It’s been around since before the Spanish -American War), it has needed some TLC, which I love doing.

After moving in, I couldn’t wait to do research on the building and found that it had been a saloon in 1900, owned by a German named Gustav; and our landlord told us that it went on to become a boardinghouse….. Not to start the idea train, but I am thinking saloon+boardinghouse = whorehouse!

Photo: IFC Films // House of Pleasures

Back to renovations….The hugest undertaking to date has been the re-modeling of a pantry closet off the kitchen. Flaking paint, rounded walls, poor workmanship to seal off what used to have been a shared bathroom complete with ancient flooring kept past tenants from using this large walk-in pantry off the kitchen, yet without much storage in the entire apartment, we found it necessary to bring the space to utilization, we had to fix it. I, being a Bob Vila/Norm Abram fan since I was around nine years old, with parents who fix everything, dove into this/these projects.

Gross

Ick

Yuck

Yucky

Sick

Blah

Crap

Uck

I bought paneling, paint, and with a lot of sweat c/o a handsaw, I managed to cover the possibly lead-inflicted surfaces with the white paneling and also painted the existing bead-board a lovely light blue. Lastly, I brought in inexpensive black and white tile laminate flooring, which transformed the space to a whole new look. It’s a lot better. We still are in disbelief that no other tenant had touched some of the antiqued space since the ’60s.